A fuel cell electrochemically combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity. The ambient air readily supplies oxygen; hydrogen provision, however, calls for a working supply. The hydrogen supply may include a direct hydrogen supply or a ‘reformed’ hydrogen supply. A direct hydrogen supply outputs hydrogen, such as compressed hydrogen in a pressurized container or a solid-hydrogen storage system. A reformed hydrogen supply processes a fuel (or fuel source) to produce the hydrogen.
Consumer electronics devices and portable electrical power applications currently rely on lithium ion and other battery technologies. Portable fuel cell systems that generate electrical energy for portable electronics devices promise extended usage sessions, but are not yet commercially available. One current but unmet goal is to produce laptop computers with an integrated fuel cell system.
Most stationary and industrial scale fuel cell systems rely on one or more disposable components, such as an air or fuel filter whose performance degrades over time and requires eventual servicing. Replacing these filters is seen as trivial (by a system owner) for an industrial scale system relative to power output by the system.
Portable fuel cell systems currently propose to also burden consumers to service their fuel cell system and its disposable components. However, portable fuel cell systems suffer from several practical complications that their industrial scale predecessors do not: maintenance diligence cannot be counted on when the number of portable users is exponentially high, and maintenance diligence may be impractical when portable fuel cell systems are carried to an inaccessible location such as remote military applications (e.g., in the desert). These servicing complications burden commercial adoption of portable fuel cell systems and threaten early confidence in the technology. Based on the foregoing, new solutions handling disposable components in a portable fuel cell system are needed.